Carrier performance at one airport
WN→LGA
Southwest Airlines at LaGuardia
- Departures
- 11,705
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 10
- Rank here
- #6 of 9
Southwest Airlines at New York carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 11,705 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 56,419 at 74.4% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs 3 points behind the 72.6% weighted average across all carriers at LGA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
69.8%
11,258 completed departures
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
3.46%
At LGA, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at LGA
These figures cover 12,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at LGA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 74.4% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 60.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,409 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 56,419 | 74.4% | 69 min | 5.62% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 29,677 | 73.9% | 79 min | 3.80% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 5,298 | 72.9% | 84 min | 6.02% | C− |
| United Airlines | 9,051 | 71.8% | 85 min | 2.74% | C |
| American Airlines | 16,663 | 70.7% | 93 min | 4.07% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 11,705 | 69.8% | 71 min | 3.46% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,043 | 69.3% | 101 min | 5.18% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 4,482 | 65.7% | 82 min | 3.57% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,409 | 60.6% | 111 min | 5.60% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 6.0% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where Southwest Airlines flies from LGA
Southwest Airlines operates 10 routes out of LGA with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGA to MDW · Chicago | 2,368 | 72.2% | 71 min | 4.48% | C− |
| LGA to DAL · Dallas | 1,492 | 72.6% | 72 min | 3.42% | C− |
| LGA to BNA · Nashville | 1,444 | 69.4% | 69 min | 3.19% | C− |
| LGA to DEN · Denver | 1,441 | 61.9% | 64 min | 3.33% | D− |
| LGA to STL · St. Louis | 1,386 | 73.6% | 70 min | 2.89% | C |
| LGA to HOU · Houston | 1,359 | 71.3% | 69 min | 2.50% | C |
| LGA to ATL · Atlanta | 1,051 | 72.0% | 82 min | 3.33% | C− |
| LGA to MCI · Kansas City | 752 | 66.8% | 73 min | 3.59% | C− |
| LGA to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 334 | 53.8% | 73 min | 3.89% | F− |
| LGA to OMA · Omahathin sample | 75 | 71.4% | 44 min | 6.67% | C− |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 35 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,258 flights89.1%
- 8am–11am1,603 flights79.7%
- 11am–2pm1,837 flights74.7%
- 2pm–5pm2,632 flights61.7%
- 5pm–8pm2,086 flights53.8%
- 8pm–5am1,289 flights57.8%
Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 53.8% on time, against 89.1% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 59.6% on time, against 85.8% in January. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 240,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit.
Cancellations run at 3.46%, against 1.80% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 11,705 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.46% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at LGA
How often is Southwest Airlines at LGA delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 30.2% of the 11,705 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at LGA?
Republic Airways leads at 74.4% on time across 56,419 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 60.6%, a gap of 14 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Southwest Airlines at LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 53.8%, 35 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are December delays on Southwest Airlines at LGA?
December is the weakest month at 59.6% on time, compared with 85.8% in January. Across the year that is 26 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.